This might be one of his ‘better’ games of late, but his missed chance in the slot embodies precisely what I dislike about his game thus far: he doesn’t seem to do anything with conviction, be it skating, battling, shooting, etc.. Had he really attacked that chance instead of slapping at it, it ends up in the net.

Whether it’s a question of confidence or just plain desire, he leaves me wondering where his fire is and whether we might ever see it.

It was an exchange of two struggling players who were underachieving and seemingly going through the motions. Calgary got the better player. Montreal got the better contract + prospects. Time will tell. But don’t ever expect much from Bourque, is my guess.

Good points Bill. The Habs need to stop compounding these types or errors by not giving out top six minutes to under performing players. Gomez is a great example of a bad trade made even worse by continuing to give top minutes.

Team has struggled getting Puck and maintaining possession out of their end all year. Stronger more skilled defenseman need to be a priority in off season. Especially if the Habs are going to fly thru next years playoffs.

Again punk that is your opinion and you are welcome to it as anyone is here. I don’t see any problem with that fight tonight myself whether it made any difference or not. I don’t think Twilighthours minded it either. We all have our own opinions.

Secondly, I see a difference between posting about tanking and posting about the uselessness of fighting. The good tankists post about how the team isn’t good enough, and want the team to be good in the future. The people who argue against fighting come at it from a place of “it’s useless” when it reality none of us know the dynamic inside a dressing room and know if it is useless or not, if gomez appreciates what staubitz brings, if Neil beating up staubitz has an effect on the outcome. It is – frankly – an ignorant position. We can have our opinions, but we are all ignorant on the matter.

Finally, I’m not even pro fighting. I totally agree with punkster that staged fighting is stupid. However, it’s part of the rules and until it is not I’d rather not have my team get pushed around. I have been on record as saying that I would love the habs to have a Thornton or Neil on the team, just in case.

No, man, they either work or they don’t. Neil won his fight and the Sens won, you say it’s because of the fight. When a guy fights and wins and his team loses, you ignore it. The fights are random and have no impact on the game.

Bill, I’m not even pro-figt, so I hate being put in the position to defend it. The whole things started from an unprompted trollish comment by punkster (who I don’t consider a troll), and I’m sorta tired of these comments.

28 degrees in New Brunswick today! Holy cow. It’s March. It’s almost as though the earth … were getting warmer or something. Thanks to greenhouse gases I was able to play baseball with my kid before Easter, our traditional start. Thank you Carbon!

Consultant: “Okay, guys, you know why I’m here. The league was ticked off with your shenanigans Monday night. What were you thinkin’? You know how the big boys feel about staged fights. It was so obvious from the get-go what was goin’ happen but did you guys care?”
Torts, DeBo: “He started it!!!”
Consultant: “I don’t care who started it! You both behaved like buffoons! Do you realize how much harm you bozos have done to the league’s reputation?”
DeBo: “Are they going to suspend us?”
Torts: “Are they going to fine us?”
Consultant: “Haven’t got a clue. Don’t care. I’m here to see it doesn’t happen again.”
Torts: “Okay, how about this — the next game we play each other, Pete promises not to start his tough guys, I won’t start mine?”
DeBo: “Great idea, Torts. Problem solved.”
Consultant: “Idiots! The problem wasn’t the fight, the problem wasn’t the premeditation, the problem was IT LOOKED STAGED. Hey, Betts and the brass, they love the fisticuffs, the knock-’em-down scraps, can’t get enough of them, in fact. You think if they wanted to get rid of fighting, they couldn’t do it by changing the rules and making sure they’re enforced? No, fighting is part of the game. And face facts, most games are the pits these days. But throw in a fight now and then, the crowd goes wild, YouTube views double, and the NHL gets a whole bunch of free publicity. The target audience goes bananas.”
DeBo: “So you want our teams to fight more?”
Consultant: “NO!…YES! Just don’t be so obvious about it, LIKE AT THE START OF THE GAME, cuz then the politically correct, never-been-in-a-street-brawl-or-played-industrial-league-hockey crowd comes after us. Sure, concussions are a problem but only for a very small minority of players. You could just as easily get hurt falling off a ladder putting up decorations but do they talk about banning Christmas? So we gotta be smart about it, cuz if we play our cards right, we’ll soon be the only hockey league anywhere in the world that still allows fighting. We’ll have what is a very large market all to ourselves!”
Torts: “So where do you come in?”
Consultant: “I prepare story lines that set the stage for ‘spontaneous’ fights ignited in the heat of battle. Every team in the league will have three, four tough guys – one, maybe two in Montreal – who will be sent to acting school in the off-season to learn how to portray the guy who’s been the victim of an on-ice assault, like an elbow to the head, or a knee to the groin. Who’s gonna argue he hasn’t the right to take justice into his own hands right away? Do you think anyone’s gonna say, let Shanny handle the punishment?”
DeBo: “So is the other guy actually gonna elbow, punch, ram the poor schnook? Why would anyone go along with this? I know these guys aren’t the brightest but still …”
Consultant: “Because the players will take turns being the villain – and none of them needs acting lessons for that. Besides it’s all gonna be fake anyway. No one’s gonna to get elbowed, or hammered in the head with a shoulder – it will just look that way! The guys will even learn how to do improv. And there will be all kinds of props to make it look hyper-real. False teeth containing capsules of fake blood. Helmets that shatter when hit by a fist. The fans will eat it up!”
Torts: “This all sounds like World Wrestling!”
Consultant: “But with one important difference. The outcomes of the games aren’t predetermined. The NHL has integrity.”

Hmm…I didn’t realize the Habs had points in their last 6 games…I guess that shows how long ago we were really out of the playoff picture since we are still in the basement…where BTW I hope to end up this year at this stage. My dream scenario…win the lottery then trade down to 5 or 6,get an NHL ready prospect, and another 2nd for next year.

“We are all accountable and responsible for player health and safety and the integrity of the game. We will not tolerate conduct or a culture that undermines those priorities,” said Goodell, whose league faces more than 20 concussion-related lawsuits brought by hundreds of former players. “No one is above the game or the rules that govern it.”

Thank heaven the NHL has the whole concussion thing under control and teams don’t put bounties on opposing players either. I mean, they wouldn’t would they?

Given the culture of the league and the history of the game I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see someone go after Myers. No matter who received the concussion that hit was disgusting and the call was blown by the on ice officials.

I want the Habs to win tonight. I’m sick of watching us get the loser point. And a regulation win over Buffalo would be satisfying; they’re a team that always gives us problems. I also want us to beat Florida and Washington, since we haven’t taken a single point from either team this season (in fact, I don’t think we’ve beaten Washington since the playoff run two years ago). With our lack of offensive depth and finish, I have no fear of our moving out of the basement.

The Habs are firmly ensconced in a state of luminality. It is palpable that this team can hardly wait to get to the end of the season finish line and begin to restructure. Gomez knows he’s gone, several other players have failed to distinguish themselves , while others have had sub par years ( ie Pleks). I really feel for a guy like Cole who signed with them probably thinking they were good for at least a round or two in the playoffs.

That said there is a foundation and there are some buildings blocks. I just hope whomever they bring in can recognize this and stop this bleeding and use the cap and the draft position and free agency a little more effectively. Habs fans deserve so much better.

It seems from many previous post that the habs have a deep prospect pool in d..which is good as not all will make the nhl but since we have a large group of prospects some will make it and may even be impact players…while we dont have goalie prospects it seems that if we sign price , we will have a young goalie for 10 years and seasoned backup goalies are fairly easily available…we do need forward prospects from the draft as it seems right now we really have 2 prospects that may be impact players in the nhl and if they dont become impact players we will continue to have forward issues…

Beaulieu will make the NHL for sure. Tinordi might, another couple of years down the road. The rest of the guys are your average long-shots, like 90% of drafted players.

That’s not a deep pool. Granted, the forward prospect pool is equally shallow, but with the Habs in the situation they’re in, they need to take the best player available in the draft, and if it’s a D, they can certainly use one.

I have a bet going with a friend of mine; in fact, it’s been going for 5 years. This year (and last) we bet 8 beers per point in the point difference between the Habs and the Leafs at the end of regular season. Last year I won 88 beers. I only lost once in 5 years but this January I figured I would owe him 200 beers given the way the Leafs were playing and the Habs were not. Tonight we are at 24 beers (I owe him). We can stipulate any kind of beer. My only stipulation: anything but Molson’s. All this to say that the ONLY reason I watch hockey is to see the beer count.

From the wintery dark
Into the springtime life
The glum Montrealers come,
Repeating their morning vow;
‘I won’t respond to the trolls,
I’ll concentrate more on my work,’
And helpless players wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can unsign the signed,
Who can coach Rene Bourque?

All I have is an avatar
To undo the accepted lie,
The self-aggrandizing lie in the brain
Of the know-it-all man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose building makes Molson Dry:
That Markov’s forgot how to skate
And no draftee succeeds alone;
Fandom allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love the Habs or die.

Defenseless in our zone
Our powerplay in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic claps and groans
Flash out whenever posters here
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of CH jerseys and of beer,
Beleaguered by their same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

No need to apologize. Wonderful stuff. You should adopt the pen name: C.H. Auden
(I do worry about the long-term consequences of contributing sophisticated posts here. Someone’s gonna take a shot at Auden before all is said and done.)

I apologise if this has been debated already;
Did y’all see the suspensions in the NFL for Bounty Gate? Payton 1 year, Loomis (GM)8 games, Asst coach Vitt gets 6 games, Williams (ex D-Coord) suspended indefinitely. Team gets $500K fine and they lose 2 2nd round picks. Goodell didn’t throw the book, he threw the whole library at these guys! ( that was a terrible analogy but whatever) NFL is serious about their product and they don’t fart around. I doubt anyone in the NHL would have the stones to deal with teams and coaches like that.

You mean like The Rangers and Devils coaches who basically had a pissing match to start the game the other night? The NFL would have dealt with them harshly, until the NHL figures it out that kind of bad joke will continue.

Brees is beside himself, and can’t understand how such a wonderful person as Sean Payton could get the judge and jury thrown at him.
I guess when you’re on the wrong side of the law, with an enforcer sheriff in town, you pay the price.
Daddy Campbell certainly wasn’t a qualified sheriff last year.

not really. I’m let down. I’m more inclined to wonder how I feel about this game. I don’t want the Caps to make the playoffs, but I have Carey Price on my fantasy team. This week is playoffs, and first prize is $100. Down to four teams…
And I hate seeing the Habs lose… But Caps closer to not making it, and the Habs closer to a top 5.
tough call. Maybe I’ll just enjoy the game and let the chips fall where they may.